Means for retarding impacts on railroad cars



March 25, 1952 s 2,590,406

MEANS FOR RETARDING IMPACTS ON RAILROAD CARS Filed June 15, 1948 2 SHETSr-SHEET 1 IN V ENTOR.

A rro/v/vsw A. A. HAAS March 25, 1952 I MEANS FOR RETARDING IMPACTS 0N RAILROAD CARS Filed June 15, 1948 2 'Sl-IEETS8l-1EET 2 mmvrog. er) a7. 1% a 0 "Maw A 7'7'0R/VE'YJ Patented Mar. 25, 1952 MEANS FOR RETARDIN G IMPACTS ON RAILROAD CARS Albert A. Haas, Macon, Ga.

Application June 15, 1948, Serial No. 33,068

1 Claim.

This invention relates to a device for overcoming the effects of impacts on railroad cars.

An object of the invention is the provision of a device embodied in the frame of a, freight or passenger car and connected between the couplings at the ends of the car for lessening the impact on the car on various occasions to prevent harm to the occupants or freight in said cars, said device including a slidable frame with a car coupling attached to each end and opposed pistons operated by a common piston rod connected to the slidable frame and maintained normally in equilibrium by a predetermined air pressure supplied to the outer ends of stationary cylinders in which the pistons are mounted, air pressure in one cylinder being released while the air is compressed in the other cylinder when an impact occurs in the neighborhood of the first-mentioned cylinder and drives the pistons towards the second cylinder, the compressed air in one cylinder and the release of the air in the other cylinder causing the pistons to be returned with the establishment of the former equilibrium.

A further object of the invention is a device embodied in a railroad car to provide a buffer against impacts on various occasions during the movements of the cars, the device having as its main feature a cushioning means in the form of joined opposed pistons operating in stationary cylinders against a predetermined air pressure for maintaining normally an equilibrium between couplings at the opposite ends of the car, an impact at one end of the car causing the pistons to be driven toward the opposite end of the car for further compressing the air in one cylinder while releasing the air in the other cylinder. The greatly compressed air in the first-mentioned cylinder reacting to return the pistons to equilibrium while absorbing the shock of the impact.

This invention is best understood by a consideration of the following detailed description in connection with the accompanying drawings, forming part of the specification, nevertheless, it is to be understood that the invention is not confined to the disclosure but is susceptible of such changes and modifications as shall define no material departure from the salient features of the invention as expressed in the appended claim.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a plan of my impact retarding device embodied in the main frame of a railroad car,

Figure 2 is a longitudinal vertical section taken along the line 22 of Figure 1,

Figure 3 is a transverse vertical section taken along the line 3--3 of Figure 1,

Figure 4 is a transverse vertical section taken along the line 4-4 of Figure 1, and

Figure 5 is a longitudinal side view of a supporting sill of the main frame of the car with parts in section.

Referring more particularly to the drawings, l0 designates a rectangular frame member of a railroad car and includes parallel end beams II and i2 and side beams I3 joined intermediate the ends thereof by parallel cross beams [5. A pair of parallel sills l6 are located between the side beams l3 and are connected at their ends to the respective end beams II and I2. Rightangular oi fsets ll have an end attached to the sills while the other ends are attached to the beams II and 12. These offsets are located between the sills lfi adjacent the beams. are bolted to the cross beams I5 as shown at i8.

Opposed stationary cylinders 20 and 21 are bolted at 22 to the sills l6 which are connected together and drawn up taut on the cylinders by transverse plates 23 and a plurality of bolts 24 received by openings 25 in said sills. The plates abut the outer ends of the cylinders for aiding in retaining said cylinders in position. The inner opposite ends of the cylinders are open. Cylinder 20 has an air inlet passage 21 for supplying air to said cylinder at atmospheric pressures while cylinder 2| has an air inlet passage 28 for supplying air under atmospheric pressure to said cylinder. A pipe 30 has one end 3| in communi cation with the inner end of cylinder 20 and the other end 32 is connected with the inner end of cylinder 2i. Each cylinder at the outer end is equipped with a relief nozzle 33.

A piston rod 34, square in cross-section, connects a piston 35 in the cylinder 20 with a piston 36 in the cylinder 21 and is provided midway of its end with a. slot 31. Each of the pistons is equipped with the usual rings. Pairs of brackets 38 above and below the rod 34 carry rollers 39 which ride on the upper and lower flat faces of said rod. The brackets are secured to the inner end of the cylinder 2|. Similarly positioned brackets 40 project inwardly from the inner end of the cylinder 20 and carry rollers 4|. The rollers 39 and 4| cooperate to provide for a uniform travel of the pistons in the cylinders. A roller engages each of the four faces of the rod 34. A coil spring 42 mounted in the outer end of each cylinder cushions the pistons when projected to the extreme inner ends of the cylinders.

Parallel bars 45 are connected together at the outer ends thereof by transverse end bars 46 and 41 to form a reciprocating rectangular frame.

Said sills The opposite ends of the bars 46 and 41 are provided each with a fork 48 to receive an adjacent end of a bar 45 and a bolt 50 connects the forks to the last-mentioned bars. An intermediate transverse bar 5| has its ends provided with forks 52 joined to intermediate portions of the side bars 45 by bolts 53. It will be noted from Figure 4 that the end bar 46 is slidable in slots 55 in the sills l6 and in slots 56 in the angular offsets H. The other end bar 41 is slidably mounted in similarly positioned slots in the sills I6 and offsets adjacent the beam |2 of the car frame Ill (Figure 5). The transverse bar 5| which is located between the cylinders 20 and 2| is received by the elongated slot 31 in the rod 34 and by a slot 58 in each of the stationary sills 16. The bar 5| is neatly received in the slot 31 while the slots 55, 58 in the bars l6 and the slots 56 in the offsets I! are sufficiently long to permit sliding movement of the bars 46, 41 and 5|.

' A coupling 60 is disposed outwardly of the beam and has a shank 6| extending inwardly through a yoke 62 mounted in said beam. The shank has a slot 63 neatly receiving the end bar 46. Similarly, a coupling 64 projects beyond the beam |2 and has a shank 65 received by a yoke 66 mounted in the beam l2. This shank has a slot receiving neatly the end bar 41 so that the reciprocating frame I composed of the bars 45, 46, 41 and will be shifted when the couplings are acted on by a force.

The operation of my device is as followsthe pistons 35 and 36 are maintained normally in equilibrium by equal air pressures in the inner ends of the cylinders acting on said pistons. When an impact has been applied to the frame by the coupling 60 pistons 35 and 36 are forced toward the beam |2 thereby opening cylinder to the atmosphere through pipe while the inlet port 28 in cylinder 2| for atmospheric r air is closed by piston 36. The air in cylinder 2| is thus compressed to a greater degree and cushions the piston 36 in connection with the spring 42 while absorbing the shock. The absorption of the energy imparted by the piston 36 raises the temperature of the compressed air in cylinder 2| and further raises the pressure. The increased pressures in cylinder 2| and the decreased pressures in cylinder 20 drive the piston 36 in the opposite direction. There may be some reciprocation of the pistons back and forth until both ports 21 and 28 are supplying the cylinders with atmospheric air.

The three transverse bars 46, 41 and 5| transmit reciprocating movements to the pistons from the couplings 6D and 64 and these movements are maintained in a uniform manner by the side bars 45. The bars 46, 41 and 5| are guided at all times by the stationary parallel sills l6 and their offsets I1.

What I claim is:

A device for retarding impacts on railroad cars comprising a pair of longitudinal parallel sills rigid with a car and provided with spaced elongated slots, a plurality of transverse bars having the ends mounted slidably in adjacently disposed slots in the sills, a side bar parallel to each sill, means connecting the ends of the transverse bars to contiguous portions of the side bars to form a reciprocative frame, opposed cylinders having the inner ends facing ends formed with center openings, a piston in each cylinder, a common rod connecting the pistons together and provided with a slot to receive a transverse bar, each cylinder having a port open to the atmosphere and controlled by the pistons, a pipe connecting the cylinders together adjacent their inner ends, the ends of the .pipe forming an outlet for the air in one cylinder when an impact on one end of the frame shifts the frame and pistons away from the impacting force, the air being compressed by the piston in the other cylinder, the increased pressure in the last-mentioned cylinder and decreased pressure in the other cylinder causing the pistons to be moved in opposite directions, and a coupling attached to each end of the frame, the connecting rod between the pistons being square in cross-section, and rollers carried by the inner ends of the cylinders in advance of and encompassing the center openings and engageable with the faces of said rod for preventing rotative movement of the rod and binding of the rod and the transverse bar and providing means for the uniform travel of said rod and the pis-. tons.

ALBERT A. HAAS.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,376,480 Straw May 3, 1921 1,862,956 Fix June 14, 1932 

